Summer Storm
by T.L. Arens
Summary: G1 3 chapters Ultra Magnus goes on a onebot hunt for an illusive wraith. But the journey takes him to a past he's less than prepared to face. Sequal to Testament.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: Some violence. This is the third Magnus story to date. It follows Testament. Transformers is (c) by Hasbro/Takara, 1990 written by a fan for all Transfans.

TRANSFORMERS: Summer Storm

Chapter 1

"HEEEERRRRRIGHT SIDE! AAAARMS OUT! PREEEESENT FLANK! FORRRRWAAARD MARCH! MARCH! MOVE IT, PLASM HEADS! WE'RE NOT HERE TO WATCH YOU DANCE! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"

Under the hard stare of Ultra Magnus' 'loving' guidance, Autobot troop Number 12 sloshed through their practice in the cold Oregon downpour. If there was a constant in the universe, it was Oregon's summer storms and Ultra Magnus' over-bearing mannerisms as he stomped alongside his troops, keeping perfect time to their rhythm. They marched in the early hours of three A.M., first marching then jogging all around Fort Max (all forty miles). The idea was to maintain uniformity in spite of Fort Max's traffic. You were not permitted to turn your head-

"WHATCHA LOOKIN' AT THERE, GREASE SPOT! THINKING ABOUT YOUR VACATION!"

"Sir! No, Sir!" The former Paratron dithered.

Magnus lowered his tone slightly and stared even more intently at the trembling bot. "What's that, girlie cakes? Did I just hear you volunteer to give Fort Max a LUBE JOB? I'm a Decepticon, see, and I'm gonna come right at you and separate your head from your shoulders-and keep your headpiece AND FRAME IT FOR MY NEXT GIRLFRIEND! GIVE ME TWO HUNDRED TWENTY-SECOND TRANSFORMATIONS ON THE SPOT THERE, GLOP! THE REST OF YOU TEEEEN HUT! TO THE RIIIIIGHT FLANK! PRESEEEENT ARMS!"

And he made his way through the ranks, examining each bot at random. They were a good squad, but even a good squad could use practice. He made them wait, standing steadfast while Tripcord finished his work. They all went together or not at all; a lesson Magnus did his best to instill into their flickering processors. War demanded teamwork and unlike Decepticons, Autobots were easily distracted.

The day drifted on to a bleak cold sunset. Rain tapered to a slow mist but returned later as the next squad of trainees marched to Magnus' tireless vocal synthesizers. Finally, the practice runs ended and Magnus took the rest of the day (all 5 hours of it) off for paperwork and a couple hours' rest. It was a good week. No surprises, no intergalactic events, no one got shot or insulted . . . things at Fort Max had fallen to a nice bit of quiet. Magnus paused in his paperwork long enough to glance out his window, peering into the night. He was glad things were quiet.

The late night, usually punctuated by a quieter city, blazed to life as sirens brayed through the air.

City security scrambled to clear a setting for a runaway shuttle, ready to crash at any second. Humans and Autobots alike dashed back and forth in berserk patterns. Traffic controllers raced to line three courtyards with runway lights and flags, praying the shuttle would have enough reverse thrust to keep from crashing into any nearby buildings.

Lights flashed in desperation and even down the hall near Rusti's quarters, EDC officials scrambled under emergency protocols.

A rumble of thunder echoed through the walls in her bedroom. And Rusti moaned miserably. She had a lousy day not many hours ago and now this noise threatened to keep her from much needed rest. The girl rolled and sat up. Her eyes blinked at the flashing lights outside the window. Shouts from two cadets outside her room echoed orders to their comrades en arms.

Something serious? She should stay in her room. Rusti slid out of bed anyway. She dragged on her slippers and robe and peered out the window. A shuttle dropped straight from the air and hit Max's metal flooring. It slid for several yards, skidding across the center of the EDC courtyard. Techs and maintenance personnel rushed madly back and forth struggling to contain a plasma fire following the shuttle.

Who was in the shuttle? What caused it to land?

The little girl ventured out, cautious to stay well out of everyone's way. She paused a moment and wondered if in fact she shouldn't put on her exo-suit. She didn't think she'd need it. Rusti slipped back in her room, however, and picked up Fluffy Duffy; a recent birthday present from a certain City Commander. She clutched it tightly and carefully made her way down the hall while EDC officers in uniform dashed from one end of the hall to the other, shouting either at each other or into their comlines.

"I gotta 29-3 breach in the cafeteria!" A colonel shouted from one end of the hall. "LET'S MOVE IT PEOPLE!" And by his command, the hallway burst into a frenzy of activity, men and women alike raced, arming themselves with shields and laser rifles.

Not one of them paid Rusti any mind. Her own heart raced; something was very wrong. She hated that feeling! It usually meant something either very bad had already happened, or was going to happen. She made her way outside, finding the pace outside even busier than inside.

Bright light from laser fire shot from a line of Autobot and EDC troops at the cafeteria. The shuttle, sitting lop-sided in the courtyard started to make a terrible screeching sound and a collective shout rang from the techs who tried to put out the pretty plasma fire.

The whole shuttle started to glow and Rusti knew what that meant. She gasped and ran behind a huge cement platter and crouched just as the shuttle exploded. The sound hurt her ears and Rusti held them fast, hoping that was the end of it. She bowed over, the stench of warping metal and fusion gasses smoked the area with a sharp bitter scent.

The noise died away as fast as it boomed and after a moment, the Oregon summer breeze came back and the little girl peeked around the platter. Three injured Autobots twitched and moaned from their injuries, their bodies melted by the plasma fire. Two EDC officers were killed and more emergency crews rushed to contain the situation.

The walls of the cafeteria snapped, the metal breaking as though pressured from the inside. Someone landed in front of the building; Ultra Magnus instantly shouted orders aiming at human and Autobot alike, taking in no excuses whatsoever.

The cafeteria walls cracked, the pressure punched out the thick, unbreakable transparent titanium windows. A long thick tentacle snapped out and slapped one EDC official to her death. The Autobots shot at it, succeeding in slicing the tentacle in two pieces. Bravely, they advanced toward the cafeteria, but the pieces that lay like dead things on the ground wriggled and sprouted like plants and in the next minute, they grew legs and the tops of their bodies flourished and sprouted more tentacles, one of which seized Magnus and threatened to pull his head off.

Blaster came into the courtyard and pumped out a horrendously loud sonic blast, forcing the beast to release Magnus. They turned and attacked Blaster, drowning his sound with their bodies.

_It'll be alright, Lady-Friend. Optimus will take care of you, now._

The voice carried over only in her head, but Rusti heard it more loudly than any of Blaster's sonic blares. She swallowed air and ran from the scene.

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Medical was a good mile from EDC. It buzzed with bodies sprinting back and forth, voices charged to be heard over one another while a few more bodies were carried in. Families and friends of survivors and victims waited impatiently and fearfully in the waiting room and lobby. Not one of them took notice of a little ten year-old girl in robe and slippers, clutching her Fluffy Duffy. They stood and sat, mostly ignoring the TV while it displayed Star Trek: Who Cries for Adonis?

One woman quietly sobbed into her husband's shoulder, his own face plastered with worry. Another woman stared blankly at the TV, her eyes swollen from tears, her cheeks flushed. Her whole countenance solid with shock.

The engines of another ship roared over Medical and Rusti's heart pounded. Optimus had been away to Germany to settle a dispute between City Commander Gryph and her security officers. Perhaps that was him now.

She padded outside and watched through the darkness as Max extended a ramp from Topside to allow the shuttle to land under emergency conditions. The city vibrated with people rushing to assistance and in the distance, Rusti could hear something roar. Then from the Topside, Skyfire zoomed down and dropped several passengers right on the spot of urgency.

From the same general direction, First Aid arrived, greeted by his protégé, Trinket from Metroplex.

"What's the situation?" First Aid's voice carried over as he greeted Trinket.

"They brought Rodimus in from the damaged shuttle. I-I don't think it looks good. All his relays . . . they've been rewired. His hydraulics are all nonfunctional . . ."

"That's impossible. Not even a Decepticon is capable of doing all that . . ."

The two made their way into the building, leaving Rusti worried sick.

Another explosion rumbled from the fight a mile away. Rusty swallowed hard, her stomach did flip-flops and she broke out in a cold sweat. Her mind reeled with the possibility that Rodimus would die.

The north-western side of the cafeteria crumbled and a huge thing, dark of hide and tentacles slapping and snaking about, snarled and spat a foul-smelling poison at its attackers. Slingshot and Blurr attacked it from the north-by-northwest side while Magnus organized three troops to surround the beast and keep it from the personnel buildings as much as possible.

Optimus arrived with Skyfire and he and Magnus directed a charge into the center of the creature.

"What happened?" Prime asked through their interpersonal communicators.

"Not sure." The City Commander shouted honestly. "Rodimus called in, half conscious. Said all three of his crew members and two ambassadors were dead and the same entity had drained the ship's power and was slowly attaching itself to his body. The ship crashed and now this."

A luminescence emitted from the topmost part of the towering creature. It grumbled again and the luminescence revealed the prints of victims devoured by the monstrosity. A few people drew back in horror, recognizing the faces of three Autobots and a few other creatures they did not know.

And through his interpersonal communicator, Magnus overheard Optimus swear in words even the City Commander would not utter to another soul.

"Magnus!" Prime growled.

"I know it!" Magnus snarled in return. They both knew what it was. "Aerialbots!" Magnus shouted a little too loudly over the interpersonal comlines: "Transform, Phase Two!"

"Skyfire!" Prime called, "take position delta-nine, keep a steady fire on it, but DO NOT FEED THE CENTER OF THE BEAST! Throttlebots, lay down an electro-net along grid position alpha three, four, five and beta one and two!"

Between their coordinated efforts, Magnus directed his people to distract the beast. Superion pummeled the creature, hacking off tentacles as fast as they grew back. Skyfire kept it off balance by a suppressing fire, shifting constantly between laser frequencies. The small Throttlebots zig-zagged in front, dodging lasers and tentacles alike as they laid an electro-grid on the ground. Prime and Magnus took out new-growth tentacles as they fell, instantly sprouting into new creatures.

"C-Commander, Sir?" Searchlight called, "Done, sir!"

With a silent glance from Ultra Magnus, Optimus fired at the net, causing it to short. It came to life with an eerie red glow. It sprung right up and wrapped itself tightly about the freakish beast.

The monster screamed and roared in protest as the electro-net sizzled its fleshy body, melting skin and cartilage.

All the other Autobots kissed the ground and Optimus and Magnus aimed at the center of the creature and fired a single power-draining shot from their weapons. The power overload proved more than what the creature could devour and it shriveled like a salted slug, leaving the smouldering dead husk of a body behind.

Several minutes later, EDC officers and Autobots pulled themselves up from the ground, wondering what the hell they just fought. But seeing they won, several people cheered while others started the clean-up process.

Magnus and Optimus merely exchanged wary glances.

Time for a staff meeting.

_---------------------------------------_

_Rrrussstiii_. the still soft voice rang like a sad song in her mind. The girl stirred from her cramped position in the chair. The waiting room was still terribly silent, the TV now playing the early morning news. The ten year-old unfolded her huddled form and found Optimus not far from her. The girl's heart pounded.

Oh, oh she dared not ask! But it was too late. Rusty already knew that answer! She shook her head, somehow hoping her denial would do away with the awful truth. She backed from his approach her head shaking harder until she burst out of the waiting room, fearing the oncoming tears that choked her straight to her soul. The little girl ran out to a patio overlooking the basketball court and from there, the football field. She could feel Optimus coming up behind her, his steps quiet over the smooth metal surface.

"He's not!" She couldn't keep the sob out of her voice. "He's not dead!"

"No." Optimus softly returned. "They're doing everything they can to save him."

She turned to him, tears smeared her face. Rusti practically shook with fear and grief. "He can't die, Optimus! Roddi can't go away! I don't want him to die!"

Prime knelt before his 'Baby Bird' and offered his hand. Usually she would wrap herself in it, but she slapped it away, unspeakably angry.

"HE'S NOT GOING TO DIE!" All the energy it took to shout left with her words and she crumpled, fearful and distressed. "I don't want him to die. He's supposed to stay and take care of us!" She wept, unable to hold it back. She allowed Optimus to gently gather her shaking form and carry her back inside.

Rusti gripped the Fluffy Duffy tightly as Optimus slowly made his way toward the elevator and two stories up. Roddi was a part of their little family, so to speak. She just couldn't picture her life without him. Optimus couldn't either. Rusti knew he relied on Roddi more than she ever would.

He stopped before the door to a short hall. A sign above the door's arch clearly forbade entry by all except First Aid and three assistants. Across the way, Optimus sat against the wall and lowered Rusti to the floor beside him. She sat with her back propped against the wall just below the huge window. The beautiful summer morning sky brought neither of them any comfort. Optimus was very quiet, his straight, stern posture belied his own grief. He was, after all, the leader and leaders didn't do things like little girls.

But she felt his sadness like a boulder resting on a pebble for support. And the girl decided she would be strong.

Rusti drew several deep breaths and decided if they could just talk maybe she could stop crying for a few moments. She swallowed hard, her lungs gasping for air so that she thought her own heart would burst. But little by little, Rusti managed to bring herself under some control.

"If-if Roddi were to die, would he go to Heaven, Optimus?" Darn it if her voice didn't crack! She sounded like such a baby! She swallowed again and tried once more. "If he dies, will we see him again?"

"We will see him again, Rusti. Yes."

Optimus was amazingly confident! Not one hint of sadness touched his voice. He stared straight ahead, his optics not once leaving the doors.

"Will we see him in Heaven?"

Now Prime gazed at her, kindness animated his features. He expertly, so very gently, ran a finger over Rusti's tiny cheek, wiping a tear. Then he set his finger under her chin. She shuddered from emotional overload, but her eyes remained fixed on him.

"All Primus' Chosen have a special place, Rusti. Rodimus will be going to a far more wonderful place than here. He will be happier than anyone."

"But will we see him again? Will we see him there?"

"Yes." Optimus withdrew his hand. "The Matrix is far more than what it appears to be; it's a gateway that leads to many other things."

"Will I go when I die? Will I see Roddi again?" She still shook, but not as badly.

Optimus never answered the question. Magnus appeared from the other hall and Prime silently left her to talk with him. Rusti curled up against the bulkhead, shuddering from grief.

"How is he?" Magnus asked, keeping his tones cautiously quiet. He was aware of the little girl who huddled on the floor.

Prime glanced at his feet a moment then gazed at the City Commander. "Situation?" He asked instead.

Magnus stared at Prime now, his own face emotionless. "Optimus. How's Rodimus?" He asked directly.

Prime hesitated then: "It's too early to tell yet."

Magnus nodded. He said nothing more, but he could clearly see the anxiety in Prime's optics. "I inspected what was left of the shuttle." He reported.

It attained Prime's attention and he met Magnus' gaze.

"It's exactly what you and I thought:"

"The Cyberwraith." Prime answered almost inaudibly.

Magnus nodded. "It has no physical form now. It'll be harder to track until It can find a new body."

Optimus drew a deep breath and sighed heavily. He knew what had to be done, but he didn't want to leave Roddi and Rusty behind. He crossed his arms, resolute. "Very well. I'll need to recharge and reset my rifle-"

"I can't let you come." Magnus interrupted suddenly. Optimus gave him a startled look. "It knows you, Prime. It knows your sequence. Obviously it knows Roddi's too. If you came, if you followed me, you'd only be endangering the mission."

"Ultra Magnus, you and I are the only ones who can recognize it in any shape."

"I'm not denying that it will be a difficult task." Magnus objected with a wave of his hand. "But . . . it will not recognize . . . a Decepticon as readily as it would an Autobot. Remember, fusion verses fission."

Magnus' logic was flawless; Optimus had to admit he could not argue. He glanced back at Rusti, still crouched against the wall. She should be in bed. But neither of them would sleep now. Reluctantly Optimus nodded. "However," he jumped. "I can't let you go alone."

"Oh no!" Magnus objected, raising his voice just slightly. "Don't you go raising a double standard on me! Whenever you and Rodimus leave, I have to fight program and shell to get you two to take someone. And now you're doing the same to me? That's not exactly fair, Prime."

Optimus gazed at him, stoic. "When Roddi and I leave, it's to escape. There's a big difference."

It was a joke and had Magnus been anyone else, he might have been infuriated. Optimus' voice was so level, so serious it could easily be taken the wrong way. Magnus tried to think as fast as he could to invent a come-back. But nothing came to mind. He frowned.

Optimus knew he won the argument and a slight smile crossed his face. "Take Steeljaw with you. At least he won't argue with your methods."

Magnus threw him a smile and silently departed.

Prime watched him leave then turned to Rusti.

Rusti stirred sleepily as Optimus carefully picked her up. For a moment, the girl thought her eyes spotted an angel posted at the door. The angel stood taller than Prime. Crowned with long golden hair and bright large eyes, the creature leaned against the wall, dressed in translucent clothing-a loose shirt and pant outfit, comfortably complimented with a long-sleeved over coat. Rusti assumed it was an angel, even if it didn't have wings.

_You can't let him die._ she begged the guardian figure. _Who will take care of me and Optimus?_

But she never got her answer. Optimus carried her sleeping form away. They will simply have to wait.

--------------------------------------------

Ultra Magnus took the very next shuttle back to Cybertron. His work would require a piece of special equipment hidden in the headquarters of an abandoned Decepticon city.

Outback and Sunstreaker maneuvered the shuttle through the warpgate just past Jupiter. Magnus brooded over the battle and wondered how much damage Rodimus sustained. Usually, the wraith didn't waist much time devouring its victims. But Roddi managed to stay alive long enough to crash the shuttle. Optimus felt responsible for this happenstance, but it wasn't anybody's fault. How the Cyberwraith escaped its original prison was still a mystery.

Three hours later, the shuttle landed, rousing Magnus out of recharge. He stood, not quite awake, and gathered his personal gear. Steeljaw remained at Fort Max, as per the City Commander's instructions. Where he was going on Cybertron, would not allow for any mistakes.

Besides, there was only one other Autobot with whom he would share this secret:

"Hey, Ultra-man! What's happening?"

Magnus' whole countenance lighted up. "Hello, Jazz." He greeted. "Did you receive my transmission?"

"A letter from you is like gettin' a box of candy straight from home!"

"Heh!" The smile never left Magnus' face. He laid a large hand across his old friend's shoulders and the two slowly departed landing bay. "I wouldn't go that far."

Jazz led him to the topmost building in New Iacon. The cityscape stretched below them, shimmering with Cybertron's own manufactured light. The population passed on land and in air all around them, buildings peeked round about one another, the scenery reached back as far as the optic could perceive. Not even the largest fortress-city on Earth could match the majesty of Cybertron's cityscapes. Valleys of barren, unmarred areas reminded Magnus how much he missed his home world. It was along those valleys he used to just 'jam'. There was nothing like the feel of cold pure oxygen flowing over your sensors as you raced across the metal flooring. No buildings, no traffic for gigameters around. Earth had that in some places, but it was just stretches of highway, usually desert highways. But they were dusty and full of insects. And that was bad. To Magnus, insects were as bad as a Human eating meat and having to pry out the pieces from between their teeth.

Jazz stared long and hard out the north side of the building. He was all talk until they reached this room. Now he was dead silent.

Something obviously disturbed him.

"What's wrong, Jazz?" Magnus asked quietly.

Jazz remained silent for a moment longer; another bad sign. He sighed hard and slowly turned toward his friend, arms crossed. "Mags, it's been sixteen years and four months since Prime last visited Cybertron. You remember that, don'cha? Right after the 'Cons took a one-way ticket right outa sight."

"Yes." Magnus answered carefully. "So?"

"So, what's the problem? Think Cybertron's got cooties 'r something?"

Magnus stared aimlessly for another long moment. He recalled the months prior to the Rebirth. Optimus had repeatedly collapsed without reason. During one meeting, he even blacked out and Magnus had tried to revive him with five alien ambassadors clamoring for answers.

The Decepticons attacking Metroplex without apparent reason seemed an everyday occurrence until Prime found out about the Key to that . . . chamber under Generator C. And then Optimus went to Vector Sigma for answers. Magnus watched as his friend withered in spirit. Something happened to him during that visit. Something had upset Optimus to the point of utter silence. He was shocked and Magnus was willing to bet that it had to do with something more than just the birth of the Head/Targetmasters.

Even after the success of Cybertron's revival, the apparent demise of the Decepticons, something seemed very much out of place. And whatever it was, Optimus was not willing to share it with anybody and Jazz's question would most likely go unanswered.

"You know, I still think what I thunk before."

What's that, Jazz?

"That V-Sigma's been tainted somehow. That them Quint'sons somehow tampered wi' it jus' b'fore they left Cybertron, waaay in the beginning. An' I think Op's seen stuff that shouldn't oughta be seen, and he's just keepin' it all to hisself just 'cuz it'd upset everyone else. After all, you know he still blames himself."

Magnus looked very grim. "I know. I wish he would see the other side of that; that he didn't start anything. A lot of slaves were freed. Wheeljack would have been executed hadn't Prime stepped up to challenge Megatron. A lot of races would have gone extinct. No one would have tried to oppose the Robo Smasher, either."

Pause.

"What did he see, Mags? What did he see that made him close up tighter than a mechana-clam?"

Magnus solemnly shook his head. "I don't know. He just doesn't want to ever come back to Cybertron. He considers Earth his home, now."

Jazz did not reply. He turned away, staring out the window, staring out past all the buildings and the traffic. He liked his position; City Commander of Fort Sonix in Australia. But he still regarded Cybertron his home. He would always miss it and the City Commander silently vowed to come home one day.

He pulled himself away from the view and his thoughts and turned to Magnus. "So, Mags, m'man, what's up that you come t' see me here?"

"Jazz," Magnus started slowly, "The Cyberwraith's on the loose. I've come to collect an artifact and capture it."

To be Continued in Chapter 2


	2. Chapter 2

TRANSFORMERS: Summer Storm

CHAPTER 2

"Flatline!" First Aid's assistant cried. "Damnit, we're losing him!"

First Aid scrambled to reconnect Roddi's systems to life support. He lost two connectors as his fingers fumbled under stress. The line lay dead on the scanner and Aid ordered his other assistant to start up the shock unit. It was dangerous. Rodimus' condition might not allot for such hostility. But it was all the poor doctor could think of at the time.

"Clear!" He announced and touched Roddi's bare open chassis with a pair of live wires. Rodimus' form wreathed in reaction, but laid just as still thereafter.

"Clear!" Aid called again and repeated the performance time and time . . . and time . . . and time . . .

He slowly suffocated, drowning in body and soul. Soon, he told himself, soon he would enter that gateway into the Matrix and pass through it. And then he would experience those things Optimus had no words for. He would be 'Home'.

It was beyond beautiful here where Rodimus stood. Whether he was in the Matrix, or at the Great Garden, Roddi could not tell. But all around him stood beauty and perfection as not seen in the temporal life. And he wished Rusti could see it too.

"It's not time for you, yet."

The words stung. Rodimus felt terribly disappointed. He wanted to be here where the words 'war' and 'death' had no meaning. Time stood still. Music was everywhere around him and a feeling of completion filled his capacitors. But . . .

"Your work isn't done yet. Don't be afraid. I will not leave you until the day you can walk again."

Roddi inwardly sighed. He could not feel his body. He could not hear any sounds. But he knew the others were around him. And he knew the alien was there beside him. The Autobot leader settled his mind for another long sleep. It wasn't time yet. Well, at least he would take comfort knowing he would still be around to watch Rusti grow up.

That at least was good.

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It took nearly every shred of Magnus' strength to open the door. Years of use followed by centuries of disuse had caused the thing to rust tight. The Decepticons considered this area haunted and many would not tread here to the Dregs in Irex City. Long after the death of Decepticon Emperor Phasor II, the whole section of the city had been sealed off. Citizens claimed to hear things; people walking, the forms of known deceased Autobots would appear floating in the halls and their mournful pain-stricken groans could be heard through the streets. Phasor loved torture above everything else. He found it stimulating somehow. He was good to his own people, providing them with whatever they needed. But the Emperor had a vile hatred to all things not of his own kind and he did whatever it took to purge Cybertron of the hated Autobots. Magnus was grateful, very grateful he did not serve under Phasor's leadership.

But here that the device was kept. When the Cyberwraith attacked Cybertron, Decepticon scientists developed a crystalline device using a special sonic frequency that attracted the cyberwraith like metal to a magnet. But that's all it did. It was the Autobot's idea (well, Optimus', actually) to contain the wraith within the Matrix. Everyone thought he had lost his mind, daring to taint the Matrix with something so foul, so bitterly evil.

Unfortunately, the whole situation cost Prime his residency on Cybertron. The idiot politicians at Iacon exiled him for centuries.

Magnus managed to open the huge ancient door. The room stank of stale, rusting metal. Meganiums of disuse and built-up deposits of nitrogen turned the walls yellow-green. The dark room revealed three sentinels buried alive. Their body shells sat against the wall, rusting right along with the rest of the room. Magnus pushed their empty carcasses aside and he and Jazz pressed forward.

Upon an alter stood a small dome of transparent titanium. For a moment Magnus wondered if Phasor wasn't mad enough to place a booby trap for supposed Autobot adventurers who might come to steal the artifact. Not that the device had any market value whatsoever. It was just a piece of crystalline enhanced with certain sonic frequencies, encased in hematite.

Jazz glanced around the room. There lay nothing else but the guards and the device.

"I don't think . . ." Magnus said slowly, " . . . that there is any potential booby traps here."

"Well, you know this place better than me." Jazz piped. "You're the 'con between the two of us."

Magnus shot him a surprised look, but said nothing. He took a step forward and Jazz moved with him and that was when Magnus realized what Jazz said. He held his hand back, keeping Jazz from advancing. "Wait." He said quietly. "I think that's what we have to watch for. Phasor was a bigot. Let me go first." He advanced alone and by the third step forward, a light shot right on him and a hologram appeared over the alter.

"WHO APPROACHES THE GREAT TREASURE OF LORD-EMPEROR PHASOR?"

Jazz set his fists on hips and frowned. "Hmph. Not a big fan on modesty, either." He muttered.

"I!" Magnus answered the hologram. "Major-general Ultra Magnus, Division Theta-Ninety-two, SIR!"

Silence frightened them both. If the program had been updated to include Magnus' defection, the two of them would most certainly be killed.

But the hologram smiled.

"WELCOME, GREATEST ONLY TO LORD MEGATRON. WELCOME TO MY PRESENCE. DO WHAT YOU MUST TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT THE MIGHT OF THE DECEPTICON EMPIRE."

Jazz breathed a quiet sigh of relief while Magnus collected the device.

Magnus was sorry he had to depart so soon. He and Jazz had been unable to really communicate in several months. Jazz's workload was heavy. Many former Paratrons had made Cybertron their home and Rodimus had given them freedom to set up their own rules and governments. However, Optimus forbade them to set up any councils or groups to "handle" anything to do with the two Autobot leaders. There was some protest, but Optimus firmly told them that was the way of things-the Bearers of the Matrix had the last word.

And seeing how all Earth's city commanders fully supported Optimus and Rodimus, the Paratrons agreed to the one conditional clause in their constitution.

Jazz acted as mediator between Cybertron and Earth. Optimus would not bother with Cybertronian politics, and since he never bothered to visit, either, it meant someone else had to keep an optic on things.

Not that there were ever any incidents. The Paratrons were a pacifistic people and their democratic regulations gave them all the freedom they needed-even their so-called 'quiet riots'.

Jazz never complained about his self-appointed role of emissary. He'd leave Fort Sonix in capable hands, disappear for three months out of the year and come back, still happy as a mechana-clam.

But for Magnus, this was the first visit in nearly ten years. He was sorry to just come and leave again. He stepped up the plank of his ship while Sunstreaker warmed the engines for take-off.

"I'm sorry, Jazz, to just go like this." He shouldered the pack containing his precious device.

Jazz shook his head. "Gotta get that thing, Mags. Tell ol' Rodimus he's gotta git hisself a new body guard. Seems the one he had, didn't do the trick."

It was a joke because like Magnus, Jazz fussed over how Optimus and Roddi would not bother with things like body guards or body shields. It was as ludicrous as it was maddening. Why did the two leaders felt their lives were so dispensable? Jazz figured with Optimus it was just habit. But with Roddi, well, at this point, who could tell. He watched Magnus board the shuttle and waved as it disappeared from Cybertron's dark sky.

Jazz took another look around. The planet was paradise. The cities gleamed clean and vibrated with endless energy.

But through it all, there was something missing. Cybertron looked like a puzzle all put together nicely, but something just wasn't quite right. Something very important was missing. And Jazz wondered if it wasn't that emptiness, the missing part that drove Optimus Prime away from accepting the fact that Cybertron was supposed to be his home world.

Who could tell.

------------------------------------

The trip back to Earth remained uneventful. Magnus produced his little treasure as he waited to land. The device was actually so simple in design, they could have made it on Earth. But there were no crystals on Earth large enough to handle the kind of power required to capture the cyberwraith. Ultra Magnus had no doubt the device still worked, but he wondered if it would still work on the wraith. He vaguely recalled the last time he dealt with the creature. It had eaten a huge chunk out of Cybertron, leaving a torn dead zone going down several levels. Many attempts by Decepticons and Autobots alike to repair the great gap failed.

The Major-general frowned outwardly. He remembered how one race accused the Transformers of being so hostile, so obsessed over their war, that they were willing to destroy their planet for it. And while that may be true in some cases, Decepticons loved their home world just as much as Autobots. But the Great Gap had nothing to do with their war. The wraith tried to devour their planet-and all of them.

And if Optimus had not taken the Matrix from Alpha Trion right at that moment, the wraith would have reached a major energon facility on level Thirty-three and there would have been no stopping it.

Magnus recalled the battle with the cyberwraith as one of the very few occasions Autobots and Decepticons worked together.

What a pity, he thought. If only the two races could see how much they need each other.

The shuttle landed at one in the morning. Magnus found himself slightly worn from the long journey and after thanking Sunstreaker and Outback, disembarked and headed for his quarters.

----------------------------------------

It loomed in the air like a god, hungry for sacrifice. Its brown hide glowed with the power of devoured Autobot souls. They could see faces on that terrible body made of rusted patchwork from Lower Levels. The only thing greater than the Cyberwraith that Magnus could recall, was Unicron. The difference being that Unicron tried to devour Cybertron from the outside. The wraith tried to devour it from the inside, acting like a disease.

The city commander recalled a terrible fight among the Autobots. One group shot at another as the second made their way toward the Decepticon front lines. It was Optimus Prime and a rag-tag group of renegades who approached the Decepticon bivouac to attempt some form of cooperation between the two races long enough to accomplish a common objective.

Magnus sprang up from his recharge unit with a gasp. "What am I doing?" He shouted out loud. Time was short and he realized there really was no time for resting.

He ordered the light on and gathered his gear, changing out the regular ion-pulse laser rod in his own weapon and set it to recharge. He strapped together two other weapons that would come in handy as one; an ultrasound frequency rifle used to distract the 'beast' and a 'hot' laser rifle used in short, powerful bursts of light to allow Magnus enough time to see the miserable thing in the dark shadows where it often lurked.

He added a small tool kit, several small two-bladed knives of pure silver and a good four-day supply of energon.

It was time to go.

Magnus left his quarters, watching proudly as Strikeback drilled the troops in the early morning hour. Strikeback was a good soldier, his lasercore lay in all the right places. But he was sometimes a little soft. However, it had become something Magnus almost expected from former Paratrons. And while it was nice to have an addition to the Autobot species, Paratrons in some cases were useless to the society as a whole. Magnus would never disclose his thoughts and feelings to Optimus or Roddi. But should war erupt, the Decepticons come back and pick a fight, Paratron pacifism could cripple the entire Autobot population.

He was about to leave the city when Magnus remembered he promised Optimus he would take Steeljaw. He silently radioed the Autobot cassette and informed him of a rendevous point on the outskirts of Central City-the Deadzone.

"Oh!" he turned to Dialer as she sat at the gate, jotting down Magnus' departure time. "Where's Prime? He didn't call me this morning."

"He's taking a break, sir. Out by the riverbank."

Magnus looked confused. Optimus taking a break? He shrugged, and without another word to her, transformed, hit reverse and headed south-west of the city.

But it wasn't Optimus who was 'breaking'. Magnus trudged up the hillside and greeted a recuperating Rodimus as he sat propped by a low-level chair, tapping into a digipad. About three-quarters of his body was covered in reinforced grafting bars, the worst places were bolted tightly in a temporary exoskeleton. Rodimus looked terrible.

"Hey, Mags." He greeted quietly, not looking up.

"Thought you were in med bay." Magnus stood straight, fists on hip plates.

Rodimus tore his weary optics from the pad and stared at Magnus as the seven o'clock sun climbed over the Cascade mountain range. "Got tired of Aid's nit-picking and decided to go out for a walk."

It was a joke. It had to be. Rodimus didn't look like he could walk at all.

"Where's Prime?"

"In Germany."

"Again?"

Roddi shrugged.

Magnus shook his head. "Well, I'm leaving, now-"

"Mags." Rodimus interrupted quietly.

He gained the city commander's attention. "Thank you." he said with emphasis. Prime watched as Magnus let slip a smile.

"Get some rest, Rodimus." He ordered. "I'll be in touch."

Magnus greeted Steeljaw in the Deadzone about eight-thirty. Traffic was unusually heavy in Central City for some reason. Magnus hated being late but there was nothing he could do about it. He arrived, greeting the lion at what was once called Robertson Bridge. The two crossed and Magnus transformed once they approached what was left of the great factory complex where the City Commander last detected the Cyberwraith. He would have started back at Fort Max, but that turned into a dead end as the wraith's physical form had been destroyed. It would have to return to some place of considered origin to attain a new form.

The factory stood like a corpse not permitted to lie flat. Its metal and steel reinforced walls rounded and bended as though they were made of putty. There came no doubt to Magnus' mind that energon had exploded from within-Decepticon formula energon had a few 'kicks' in it.

Steeljaw scampered about, sniffing everything like a dog. He made no detectable sound while Magnus returned to the one point where he found evidence of the Cyberwraith's activities.

The blot of discoloring on the wall might have been dismissed by someone else as a water stain. But under UV vision, it glowed menacingly with potent radiation. Magnus made a note on a digipad to have Perceptor and Quasar isolate the whole wall and ship it off the planet. This must have been the very place the Cyberwraith gained its form.

Thirty degrees due west, Steeljaw snarled noisily and scratched the dirt. Silently, Magnus rose to his feet and activated a scanner. "What did you find?" he asked aloud.

"Here." Steeljaw answered via internal comlines. "Hot."

Magnus scanned the dirt and sure enough, radiation footprints registered right off the scale.

But there was something else that disturbed the commander. He rested the scanner's edge against his chin and thought for a long moment. It seemed the wraith might have made a detour. If it was here, attacking Rusti then attacked her again in the forest, why didn't it try to follow her through the city, too? Unless it knew where she was heading.

Or, that maybe it found other prey along the way.

Magnus stood straight. "What's the predicted trajectory, Steeljaw?" He asked out loud.

The metallic lion sniffed about the place, using scanners, audios and olfactory sensors to pick up even the tiniest of fragments. He circled the area about Magnus twice before picking up something else. The lion discharged dust and lint from his scanner plates and started over. At that point, he made a path north by northwest toward a ravine. Magnus followed him, aiming his scanner in the general direction. But he didn't get any radiation readings and wondered why the lion cassette aimed this way.

They reached the ravine behind the destroyed factory and found a terrible burial site.

Ashes. Ashes everywhere. The dead figures of Doppelganger twins lay like so many stone figures in a Chinese grave yard. Their soft faces now disfigured by the weather, slowly eroded by the onset summer winds.

Magnus was amazed to see so many of them. No wonder they had so many problems with the cult a few months ago!

But apparently that's not why Steeljaw came here. The metal lion snarled and plunged right into the sea of ash, his moves causing more dead Dopp twins to disintegrate into powder.

"Steeljaw!" Magnus called, "Wait! Where are you going?" And he too plunged into the pool of ashes. He was horrified when the amount of ash rose to his hips in some places. Steeljaw made it to the other side and shook himself free of grey powder. Magnus followed, fully regretting following the cassette across the very material that annoyingly ground between his joints.

He repeated his question and the only word Steeljaw gave him was 'Con'. Magnus about growled himself at that point.

"There are no Decepticons here, Steeljaw." He snarled. "Let's just head back to the Deadzone and start over."

But the lion would not listen. It dashed up the nearby hills, levering himself between trees and rocks, effortlessly climbing up the steep hill.

At first Magnus resolutely refused to follow the lion over the mountain. But upon watching Steeljaw's persistence, the City Commander decided to join him. He trudged up the slope in huge, powerful strides, breaking foliage and brush underneath. He made it to the top of the hill and gazed into the next valley below. It stretched on into a short distance, this part of Douglas County now off limits to urban/suburban development. Trees both tall and old dotted the small valley before it swept up into another mountain. Large rocks nestled among grass and brush and vine. And in a bed of crumbling boulders, Steeljaw snarled and kicked at the formation. Magnus snarled again, swearing he was going to assign the lion to dog obedience school for the next two months. He slid down the slope, half tempted to transform and bulldoze the trees standing between he and the annoying lion. This, he swore, was the last time he'd agree to one of Prime's ideas!

He tramped across the valley and up the next slope, his mood worsening with each step.

Steeljaw met him along the dirt and boulders in the 'naked' area of the mountainside. Magnus was not impressed. "What's gotten into you?" He demanded. "We have a job to do! Now let's get going!"

But Steeljaw turned away, frisky almost like a puppy rather proud of itself. Magnus softly swore and stomped after the lion, meaning to grab it round the backside and drag it back to headquarters and chain it to Optimus' desk.

But the sight Magnus came upon made him forget even the bed of ashes he had to cross to get here. He stood, staring as though seeing death naked for the very first time. He kept staring as if what he saw was death in a very tangible form.

"Sh-Shockwave . . ." He could almost not even whisper it.

It lay-he lay like a car wasting away, forgotten by time and memory. A clump of rusting, deformed metal lay exposing inner circuitry and components that should not be displayed to the elements. His gun-arm was naught but a few strips of wiring and a single infrastructural rod. His once shiny boots now mangled beyond use. Part of his head had been crushed in, now exposing part of the cranial chamber; a rather gruesome sight. His chest and abdomen were covered in overgrowing vines and branches from the nearby ground covering. The lump of scrap, a once-proud loyal servant to Megatron now lay like a beer can, discarded, waiting to be crushed by oncoming traffic.

The one terrible thing about the sight Magnus witnessed, the one very horrible thing about the display was that Shockwave, by some terribly unjust means, still lived.

A set of metal tubes connected to an energon cube drip-fed the Decepticon. Shockwave could not move. He could not repair himself and Magnus doubted that he could be repaired without risking further damage. And from the look of a weather-worn paint job, the amount of plant growth over his chassis, Magnus judged Shockwave must have been here for at least several years.

"And what are you staring at . . . Autobot?" His soft voice dripped with hate and bitterness. "Come to see the end of a monster's career? Come to stare at the demise of a murderer?"

"Shockwave." Magnus only repeated. "You-you're alive."

"Of course I'm alive, fool. Did you think all Decepticons merely give up their sparks because their bodies won't function? Unlike you, I still have the pride of a warrior's power core. I still exist."

Magnus found words hard to come by. He stumbled even for a thought, shocked by the very idea that Shockwave, who was supposedly on Cybertron during Unicron's attack, could still be alive-and on Earth. He sank to his knees, unable to stare at the 'Con's 'face'.

"Ahh!" Shockwave barely gasped. "You weren't expecting to find me at all, were you, Ultra Magnus? Looking for something else, perhaps?"

Magnus squared his shoulders, now looking at the battered disfigured form of the former Guardian of Cybertron. "I was hunting the Cyberwraith. My hunt led me here."

Shockwave remained silent for a long moment. The fingers of his remaining hand twitched, although Magnus could tell by the grass and vine growth beneath and around, Shockwave could not use it. The Decepticon's single optic flickered when he finally spoke again:

"It was here. It wanted to devour me. But as you know, Decepticon lifeblood leaves a bitter taste in its mouth. It seeks the weak of soul and body. It is a scavenger, a coward at heart. It fears the mighty and the undaunted."

"It also can't read Decepticon DNA and brainwave patterns." Magnus added, knowing that what Shockwave was saying was slag.

Shockwave grunted, unimpressed. A moment's silence passed uneasily between them. Magnus guessed the Decepticon expected to be executed at any time now. But Magnus had already decided to simply let him lie. Shockwave could do nothing at this point.

"I'm willing to wager you wonder how I came here. To Earth." The Decepticon almost seemed to smile behind the totally emotionless face. "I can see it in your face plates, Ultra Magnus. You're wondering how the pit I survived."

"Yes." Magnus answered honestly.

"Yes. No doubt you're curious. Unicron attacked, leaving my body much the condition you see it now. I managed to crawl to one of the remaining space bridge pads and aimed for Zoxes, which, as you know, is a Decepticon stronghold on Patu. I assumed our allies there would repair me. But the attack changed the location on the space bridge and I and two energon cubes ended up right here. Right here."

Magnus almost couldn't believe what he was hearing. He didn't know what to say and figured it was best to simply turn and walk away, never revealing the location of Shockwave's soon-to-be grave.

"You know . . ." Shockwave called with his ever quiet voice, "Lying here like this over the years has caused me to consider many things, Ultra Magnus. Many, many things."

Magnus really wasn't interested in this Decepticon's twisted version of reality. Shockwave wasn't just some simple subordinate to Megatron. Shockwave was a murderer. The only reason Megatron permitted this soft-spoken sadist to function was that Shockwave was good at what he did and that meant two areas: A.) he was one of the finest bounty hunters and B.) he was a good aft-kisser.

"For example:" Shockwave continued, "all the things we as a people and as a species did. All the cleansing and the reorganizing of other worlds. The wondrous things we did to improve on the universe around us."

"You mean the slaughter and theft of other worlds and the populations on them." Magnus growled.

Somehow Shockwave managed to shake his damaged head. "You have been so disillusioned by Autobot propaganda that no matter what I say, you will refute my point of view."

"It's not just a point of view when people living on their own world, minding their own business, are ruthlessly obliterated because we want their resources." Magnus snarled.

"Oh. You're still bitter of all that, Magnus?" Shockwave's soft voice taunted and mocked the Major-General. "You know, I listen to local news to help pass the time. I will say that over the years, the Primes have made some impressive accomplishments. Developments on Mars . . . new space platforms, trade agreements with formerly hostile races . . . very impressive indeed. But you . . . you've taken a back seat to all that glory."

"I don't need glory to be happy." Magnus answered in a quieter tone.

"No. I suppose not. But you're so much better than that. Look at what you were given, Ultra Magnus. You were to be the first and the finest in a new line of Decepticon commanders. You were going to be appointed Lord Governor. Even Megatron began to take notice of your accomplishments. And what happened? You meet this rouge Autobot leader and changed your mind."

"No." Magnus objected. "I had changed my mind long before I met Optimus Prime. I already had doubts. When I met and talked with Ironhide and Kup I realized where my life was headed."

Shockwave grunted. "Not even tainted by an Autobot leader. You were so easily persuaded. You've surrendered all the great gifts we gave you for a bitter dish of values, morals and standards."

"Gifts?' Magnus shot. "Gifts? I lost my life!"

"We gave you a new one. And a new form to go with it. And you discarded our generosity like a pan of used oil. And what are you now, Ultra Magnus? Prime's secretary? Is it worth it?"

Ultra Magnus shook his head, now. "No. City Commander. what the Humans call 'town sheriff'. I love what I do."

"Whatever." Shockwave snorted.

"No." Magnus objected. "There's no shame in my position."

"Liar." Shockwave snarled in turn. "We gave you more! We gave you the ability to fly. We gave you one of the finest triple forms ever designed by Decepticon science. Now, now you've tossed it away, rolling all along the ground like a groveling maintenance droid. We decorated you and praised your name and where are you now? A stepping stool for Prime's filthy feet. He doesn't know your greatness. He doesn't know your power. Only a Decepticon can appreciate and honor a Decepticon. The Autobots are rejected slag wasting away in the dregs of refinery waste pools. Pathetic weak scrap metal with no sense of power or honor."

Magnus did not know what to say in turn. Shockwave was a liar himself, slandering the Autobot leader in such a fashion. At least, if nothing else, Shockwave should have enough respect for Prime to recognize that Optimus was among the few Autobot leaders to survive this long, and not because of the Ark's crashing into Earth. And considering Shockwave's words, Magnus realized he had no respect for this pathetic pile of waste. "It's interesting you should say all that, Shockwave." Magnus finally said at length, "Considering you're the only Decepticon to be in this quadrant in over thirty Earth years."

The former guardian of Cybertron fell silent. A soft drizzle tumbled from the sky, adding to the somber mood of the moment. Finally Shockwave lifted his pitiful single hand. His crushed fingers would not move, but the movement was enough to make Magnus understand Shockwave was using body language for emphasis:

"End my life here, Ultra Magnus. I implore you one last act as a Decepticon who would honor a fellow Decepticon by not allowing such a useless death. End my life and my suffering."

Magnus stared, his optics bearing down on the miserable Decepticon. He finally shook his head. "No."

"No?" Shockwave echoed in surprise.

"No. You deserve nothing more than what you have right now. You're asking me to put an end to your misery, to this just punishment for your crimes. You want me to end your pain and suffering. But I see it as a fit ending for someone who has ruthlessly murdered millions. Thanks to your grotesque pride, there are few Autobot femmes and no female Decepticons."

"Liar! They were a disease among the strong."

"They were the strength of the Decepticon Empire. It was the ladies who reminded us of civility. Had I been Megatron, I would have made you live out your life in a torture chamber. I would have watched every day as you slipped into insanity. And then, Shockwave, I might even have enjoyed it."

"The Femmes are nothing but weak links."

Magnus' mind boiled with anger. But his face reflected nothing until his optics narrowed: "One of those 'weak links' was my wife!"

Only the rain made any sound at the moment. Apparently Shockwave had no answer. How many other Cons lost their mates, their loves to this creepy pile of rejected scrap? Magnus remembered the wrath, the outrage that rocked the Decepticon Empire. It bred hatred among the warriors until Megatron lied about the whole ordeal: that the Autobots had reprogrammed Shockwave, thereby making him do their evil bidding. It was one of the greatest lies in Cybertronian history.

And what was worse, was that the Decepticons, already full of hatred for the Autobots, bought the lie.

Fuel for the fire.

The tense moment broke when Magnus stood. "I've decided to leave you with the rest of your life, Shockwave. Have a nice one."

"You can't do this!" Shockwave called as Magnus' great form stepped away. "Surely you have enough honor to grant me the one request! Ultra Magnus! Ultra Magnus!"

But the city commander tramped down the hill, tuning out Shockwave's calls. Had another Decepticon been there, any one of Megatron's thugs, they most likely would have done the same thing. As an Autobot, Magnus supposed he should have granted Shockwave's request. But for the moment, he was not an Autobot. And he never looked back. And he never returned. And he never revealed this dark moment to another spark.

To Be continued in chapter 3


	3. Chapter 3

TRANSFORMERS: Summer Storm

Chapter 3

Magnus returned to Fort Max. In order to get a better grip of his intended target, he felt it necessary to talk to the last known victim. But Rodimus had relapsed, and ended back in First Aid's hands. Optimus arrived from Germany just a few hours before and resumed the duties of three people: Magnus', his own, and Roddi's. Even talking to the Senior Prime was out of the question.

The other latest victim lay in bed with a really bad cold.

Magnus timidly tapped on Rusti's bedroom door and after a moment, Max opened it and the City Commander entered, a bit bashful over intruding on her rest.

The little girl smiled warmly just the same, easing the huge robot's nervous stance. Magnus fumbled for words before deciding to approach the bedside. He gracefully knelt beside her tiny form and sent her a wry smile.

"Uhhm . . ." Whatever he should have said to greet her ran away and made the moment awkward.

"Hi." She greeted in his stead. She sniffed and wiped her nose with a bundled tissue.

"Hi." He answered simply. "I'm sorry you're ill."

She shrugged. "Obtimus told be I needed sleep. But I couldn't 'cuz Roddi was . . ." She couldn't finish that either and coughed several times before tossing another cough drop in her mouth. She leaned back against her pillow, exhausted. A drawing tablet lay in her lap, the simple drawing of her Raggedy Ann remained unfinished.

Magnus had never felt 'sick', but he knew what it was like to have malfunctioning or worn-down parts and he was sure it was pretty much the same thing. He glanced at the carpet for a moment, trying to gather the words he needed. "Rusti," he spoke softly, knowing she could hear him just fine, "I have a favor to ask of you. I know it might be hard, maybe painful to remember. But I need to know everything you can recall concerning the Cyberwraith when it attacked you.

Her sea grey eyes grew wide with surprise. She slowly sat up but only settled back against her pillows. "Why?"

"Because I have to find it."

"It's not in the city, Ultra Bagnus."

"Yes, I know-" his optics lit up with surprise. "How did you know that?"

"It doesn't like the city. It tried to keeb be away frob Bax." Rusti shrugged and plucked up another tissue, blowing her nose to no good.

Magnus knew she needed sleep: "Rusti, I'm sorry, but I need to know everything you can remember. I know Prime told me the Cyberwraith had taken on the form of a tree stump. Do you recall anything it said, or did, or indicated?"

Rusti tried to swallow a lump in her throat. She gazed away from him, toward the window overlooking the EDC district two stories down. "I don't know, Ultra Bagnus." She answered softly. "I was scared and sick. I saw a lot of freaky things. I could feel it breathe on be and it said it knew by sequence and it called be a lot of bad nabes. It had faces all over its body and I think they were screabing."

Magnus allowed her to fall silent while he processed the information. "Faces, Rusti?" He echoed after a while. "You mean you saw faces in the tree stump?"

"No. Not there. Back at the factory. It was bade of heads."

Puzzlement twisted Magnus' face. "Rusti, did the Cyberwraith find you there at the factory? Was that your first encounter?"

"Yes."

"Where did it go after that? What saved you?"

Rusti's sad expression fell blank and she shook her head. "I don't know." She answered very quietly. "I don't rebebber. I don't rebebber a lot of things, Ultra Bagnus. It was all a really bad dreab sobehow." Now she looked at him and he registered the weariness in her eyes. "Have you ever felt that you were not where you should be? I bean, did you ever feel as though you weren't supposed to exist at all?"

Magnus gave her a grim smile and tucked the blanket a little closer to her shoulders. "Only when I'm the only one left standing at the end of a battle." He answered in sadness. He suddenly bit his own words, knowing he should not go around saying such things. It was certainly true. But it was information she did not need, and certainly not in this condition.

Rusti sniffed, closed her eyes and fell quiet now, her weakened condition demanded rest. Magnus set the tablet and pencils on her night stand and left the room.

He leaned against the doorpost and thought for a long moment. Rusti's information was sketchy, but Magnus knew he would not get much from her, knowing what she went through a few months ago. Such a fragile creature! And so determined! He admired her strength. But her descriptions of the Cyberwraith troubled him. The wraith came to her in faces, most likely in its bodiless form. Then it must have trailed after her and somehow attained a body by using the plant growth around it.

And then it disappeared and reappeared in a shuttle. How was it traveling?

Magnus groaned in frustration. If the shuttle hadn't blown like it did, he might have been able to acquire a clue from it. But as it was, he had nothing.

Except the remains of the cafeteria.

Optimus silently picked his way over and around the ruined cafeteria. It would take a good six weeks to get it going again. At least when the wraith attacked, it attacked the nondescript side. All the framed art and certificates belonging to many EDC members still remained in tact.

Magnus rummaged through what was once the doorway. He

hauled up one sheet of metal after another, scanning and tossing them aside. Prime watched him for a moment, taking note how intensely Magnus concentrated on the task.

"Hello, old friend." He softly greeted.

Magnus shot up, turned and gave the Autobot leader a distant gaze. "Hey." He grunted and returned to his scan.

"How can I help?"

Magnus found the piece of rubble as useless as the rest and threw it aside. He sighed and finally decided to take a break. "I uh, I talked with Rusti. She's still not well."

"She's under a great deal of stress." Optimus confirmed.

Magnus nodded and traced the topside of his scanner, looking for words. "She told me something of her experience with the wraith. From her description, I'd almost say that it came to her in its natural form."

This was something of which Prime was not aware. He had not asked her much of anything regarding her few days and nights alone in Central City. He figured she would rather not try to recall. Prime rounded the mess between he and Magnus and found a seat on a broken partition. "What else did she say?" He asked quietly.

"That the wraith told her it knew her sequence. Prime, this is confusing. I know over the millions of years, the wraith could have accommodated itself to adapt more efficiently to its environment, but plant life? And why only Rusti? Why not other humans? It went to a great deal of trouble to track her down."

Prime leaned over, setting his chin on his laced fists. "Sequences in DNA, Ultra Magnus." He said very quietly.

"But why only her DNA? What's so special about Rusti?" Magnus reminded.

Optimus sat up and Magnus read the hesitation in his optics. "Rusti . . . doesn't produce gamma wave life force." He said softly.

"What?" Magnus heard him, but couldn't believe what he said.

"Gamma wave life force." Prime repeated. "Rusti's body doesn't produce it like a normal Human. That's why she gets sick when she's gone from Fort Max too long a time. Her physical rhythms are imbalanced."

Optimus was talking in riddles as far as Magnus was concerned. But then his mind raced back to the elementary school that was obliterated by the war cult several months ago. An alien force had literally fried the bodies of fourteen cultists to the walls down the main hallway. The remains, however unlovely, registered in gamma wave life force radiation.

And that might have attracted the wraith.

"You know . . ." Magnus thought hard about how he wanted to say what he was going to say, "If I were a creature in serious need of a good recharge, I don't think I would exert myself to hunting too much until I've had a good dose of power. You and I both know the wraith feeds on other sources of energy besides life. In fact, it hunts the living more for pleasure than nourishment."

"Are you saying our ghost is attaining its strength elsewhere?" Prime quipped.

"If you recall, Optimus, the wraith had taken more than its share of Autobot lives on Cybertron, but it also devoured sixteen power generators and four thousand energon cubes."

"Ssso, you think it might be aiming for a power-generating facility?"

"I don't know. I don't really think it would tamper with anything that would make it easily detectable by scanners. Human scanning devices might be low-powered and somewhat primitive, but they can scan things like radiation burns."

Prime sat up straight, now looked at Magnus with a new light on his face plates. "I have an idea."

"What's that, Boss?"

Optimus kept his patience. Blaster had ignored him for the last three times he had tried to talk and it was getting annoying. "I need you to link up to the satellite and look for these frequency wave lengths."

Blaster's attention had jumped from his sound board, to four phone calls for music requests to his daily track record of commercials and now the Big Cheese suddenly wants a favor? Sheesh! So Blaster figured Op would understand and put the request off until a later time. But by the third disregard, Blaster saw Magnus cross his arms. Where Optimus would not verbally push, Magnus would physically indicate a warning-"do it or else" and forcing a slight and uncomfortable chuckle from the back of his synthesizer, Blaster gave Prime an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, Boss. Just sorta busy. Jus' lemme know what frequency-it's good as done!"

Optimus smiled through his optics, knowing what had just transpired. Magnus was his strong arm, that was what Magnus was best at and Optimus gave him every opportunity to remind the troops who was their drill sergeant.

Blaster tapped a few buttons and his seat unfolded and he transformed and connected to the chair itself, thereby also connecting straight to his radio board. From there, the radio link-up connected to one of the three satellites stationed in orbit high above Canada. He programmed the frequency Optimus requested into the satellite's systems and began a world-wide search, connecting to five and six other satellites over Russia, China, Indo Asia, South America and Egypt.

Prime and Magnus waited in silence. The signal would not be easy to find and it could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.

But just the next minute, Blaster exclaimed a "Eureka!" and disconnected. He transformed into his robot form and transmitted the data onto a digipad straight from his right hand. "The signal I picked up is in one of those forbidden areas-that one place in China, in fact."

"What's that?" Magnus asked as he accepted the pad from Blaster.

"It's in the North-western side close to the Russian border-the Carlonium Crystal Crevice."

Both Autobot Commanders flinched in surprise.

"Blaster!" Prime gasped. "Are you sure of your coordinates?

"Never been surer." The Communications Chief answered. "The signal came straight from the crevice. A deaf man could pick up the signal, it was so loud."

"Then I'm on my way." Magnus announced.

"You're going to the Crevice?" Blaster's lip components dropped apart in disbelief.

Magnus stared at Blaster, but said nothing. He gazed at Optimus _I will come back._ he swore.

Prime's head tilted down just slightly, his optics dimmed, _It had better be in one piece, Magnus. I'll come after you and kick your ass personally._

Magnus smirked out loud and walked out.

Magnus waited patiently for Skyfire to find a place to land just a mile shy of the crevice. Magnus disembarked, double checking his equipment then bade the air commander good-bye. He waited until Skyfire was out of sight then the City Commander transformed to his powerful vehicle mode and coasted carefully along the old trail ways and battle paths left by the bitter battle years ago. He edged about the mountain fortress where Megatron once held a temporary base of operations and quietly transformed back to robot mode. Magnus took a quick visual estimate of the surroundings before slipping on a set of specialized goggles. The land turned into a sonic symphony radiating powerful sound and light frequencies. Just ahead, the crevice glowed brilliantly, beckoning Magnus to take a better look.

The Major-General tried to sneak about the rocks and crevices surrounding the ancient area. But it proved foolish. Finally Magnus got down on his hands and knees and crawled to the lip of the ravine.

Several feet below, crystals of unimaginable size sprouted like glow-in-the-dark visages of forbidden power. They taunted him because Magnus could feel their strength within his circuitry and part of him yearned to taste that delicious energy. The other part of him reminded constantly the terrible price of that particular 'forbidden fruit'. He could feel the vibrations of the crevice's bosom and somewhere down there loomed a spirit of evil. Magnus turned right and crawled along the lip, glancing between his path and the crevice in the darkness of nightfall.

Then he found his prey.

Dancing between the crevice wall and one tall slice of crystal, the wraith laughed a whispery laugh all to itself. It prattled on in its own peculiar language, fussing one moment, laughing insanely the next. It whispered and hissed like a cat, moving like an ethereal figure of light. Magnus watched it for a long moment, trying to decide what was the best way to catch it with as little struggle as possible.

The wraith was beautiful. Having drawn in the unstable energies leaking from the Carlonium, the creature glowed and shimmered. It danced and tapped, flitting this way and that, completely unaware of its one-bot audience.

Magnus unslung his pack and gave his surroundings a cursory glance. He was hemmed in by boulders, trenches and gullies. The craggy area brimmed with shale and other sedimentary, brittle rock. An unstable ground for a pit of unstable crystals. But here he could dig into the rock formations and make good his trap.

Magnus plowed grappling hooks into three large pillars of stone and set magnesium strips for a small electro-net. He set the crystal behind the latches so that once the net was tripped, the magnesium would ignite and radiate a small shock wave, pulsating a sound that 'woke' the crystal's own power frequencies thereby sucking the wraith in.

Magnus checked the ravine again, just to make sure his prey remained where it was. It still danced like a mad fairy, now zipping around the crystal shards, drunk with power.

The time was now.

Magnus whacked the two silver blades together so that the metal vibrated at unheard ranges.

Like a dart of pure energy, the wraith shot from the crevice flooring right at the Major-General. Magnus leapt out of the way, hoping the thing was flitting too fast to avoid the trap. But it followed him in perfect accuracy and Magnus ducked between boulders. It shrieked, infuriated and he managed to hide himself from its sight.

"Damn!" He whispered to himself. He underestimated its agility. He'd have to come up with another way to lure it back to the trap.

" . . . aaaaagggnnnuuussssssssssssss." It sang. The lilting song called soft and sweetly, the tenor voice inviting but Magnus knew it was a death song and he firmly ordered himself to stay put. Shadows grew and faded as the glowing figure of the cyberwraith passed just a few yards from him. "Play with me, mighty warrior. I know you're here. I smell . . . maaagneeeeseeeuuum. Can't be mean. Don't be mean. Cruel, indecent little creature."

The light faded. The sound died with it and Magnus nearly held his breath more tightly. One wrong move. One false assumption. One careless thought and it would have him. He waited, optics darkened.

One minute.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Oh, one minute more and another after that . . . and the Major-General reactivated his optics.

It was sitting right in front of him.

"Not Autobot. Not know the sequence. Let me inside so I know your sequence."

"Is that how you kill your prey? You ask them in?"

It tilted its head from one side to the other. Somehow, it didn't seem quite so dangerous just now. The wraith's eyes burned dark and when it opened its mouth, a cavern of nothingness accompanied three terrible rows of teeth. "Not fair. Not fair to ask that question. Where's the stupid little girl?"

"What little girl?" Magnus asked. He took their rocky setting into account and thought about causing an avalanche to fall upon them both. He knew he could easily recover. But the wraith might be confused and unable to think as quickly.

"You know. The Delicious One. I had her-almost all of her and that naughty city tattled on me." It gave a mock pout.

Magnus shifted so that he looked a little more comfortable around the creature, luring it into a false sense of security, "How-how did you come into the world?" He asked lightly.

It smiled, pleased with itself and it sat straight. "The genes let me go. The Power . . . it broke down the doors!"

"You mean in the Matrix." Magnus assumed.

"Yesss! And the stupid girl didn't know! Sweet thing. Sweet prey. Good to taste. Not her fault. The other Thing was there and It helped."

"What other thing?"

"The Thing that sings to Itsself. The Dark Thing that laughs at its own jokes. It feeds and we passed by It. She wasn't aware of It. But then, the stupid girl doesn't know much of anything. But she's-"

"Alright, alright! Enough of the girl! I know she tastes good. You've said that."

"You askedt." It stuttered. "I answered. You askedt and I answered and that is how it is."

"It certainly is."

Magnus fired one of his shoulder-mounted missiles right at the wraith, causing the rock formations around them to crumble like so much broken chalk. The wraith spat and wailed in fear, the sound of its wails sent chills down Magnus' audio processors. He pushed and pulled and pried and managed to get one hand free. He called his weapon from subspace and shot one rock after another until he pulled himself free.

But the moment he emerged, the thing did too and it bellowed, infuriated at the betrayal. Magnus ran toward the right side of the trap, but he didn't make it. The wraith screamed like a banshee and Magnus fell tumbling out of control.

It bit him and he swallowed his scream, reaching around his shoulder to pull the thing off. But it zipped from him and faced him. Magnus rolled out of its reach but not fast enough. It grazed down his left leg, slicing into a line. Magnus moaned softly but cut off his pain receptors. He lifted a nearby rock and threw it, meaning to distract the entity. He produced the ultrasound rifle and fired.

The wraith screamed again, more angry than before and it attacked Ultra Magnus with great ferocity. It slammed the Autobot against the rocks and threw loose boulders at him. It danced madly, the brightness of unstable power lit the area in a presentation of blazing lights and deathly darks. Magnus had a hard time keeping in perfect motion to avoid any real injury. The wraith was matched for him, tactic for tactic and it kept screaming, calling him every foul and unmentionable name. Magnus struck out, fired his rifle and grasped it physically a time or two, wrestling his way back to the trap until the trap sprung-by his own falling body.

No good. No good. The thing set off, the magnesium lit and the wraith was not where it was supposed to be.

"Treasonist!" It hissed. "Take the toy and run away!" It slammed itself square into Magnus' midriff and shot off toward the crevice.

Magnus stumbled about in a daze. He fell against a rock and clung to it for several moments, regaining his balance. He started to recover enough to realize what the thing was going to do. He ran toward it, hoping to catch the entity before it dipped back into the crevice.

Too late. It was already down on the crevice floor, hastily devouring power stored in five large crystals. It cried out in madness and using the unstable power within, the wraith shot from the ravine like a rocket. Magnus gasped and ran as fast as he could, rounding the largest rock formations he could find as the wraith shot out the crevice, erupting several crystals. One explosion caused another and another. The whole area flared white and Magnus spotted the brilliance of the wraith's body as it flew freely through the sky.

Magnus realized if the wraith reached civilization with the unstable energies it fed on, it would destroy everything it touched.

Where was it heading? The Major-General panicked for a moment. He couldn't possibly follow it along the ground-he didn't dare call for back up, it'd devour any Human- or Autobot-based DNA that came close to it.

He could call for Skyfire, but Skyfire would not arrive on time. There remained one option however. He didn't want to think of it. He didn't want to use it. But it was, at this moment, the only choice left to him.

He returned to the broken, useless trap and retrieved the crystal, now buried under debris. He rechecked his weapon for charge and drew a deep breath. This was the hardest thing he's had to do in centuries.

Magnus ran for the cliffside of the crevice. He checked the parameters throughout all his systems, preparing to do something he had not done in nearly seven million years.

There was a systems failure along the neural pathways in his left leg. The wraith's attack caused him to ignore his pain receptors and Magnus didn't think about rerouting power. He did that and ran even faster until he ran right off the cliff.

He wasn't sure it was going to work.

Parts of his body unfolded. Parts of parts not used in seven million years came to life, albeit a bit out of practice, they changed and folded, snapped open, shut, connected and reorganized the shape of his body. The Major-General cringed and moaned in pain as some injuries made transforming difficult and he came within thirty precious feet from impacting crystals.

But then his engines kicked in, firing in an explosion of sound and power. Magnus shot out of the crevice in a secret third transform mode: a Decepticon prototype superjet

He followed an ion trail similar to the unstable energies of the Crevice. Magnus roared across the sky from the Crevice to Tibet. He forgot what it was like to fly and unfortunately, this would be the only time he'd use this form. Upon becoming an Autobot, Magnus gave up this privilege. He was an Autobot. That was final. Though the Major-General was sure Optimus would be more than happy to know about his third form, Magnus could not reveal it. It was part of a past he walked from.

Magnus zoomed across several ruins before finding his target. The Autobot commander transformed and set down on the frozen tundra. He listened carefully, carefully. It could be anywhere. Maybe it was trying to fit itself into its surroundings.

It slammed into his back and Magnus crunched the ground hard. He struggled to get a foothold and stand, but it pinned him to dirt and stone. It punctured his shoulders and hissed. By might and will, he managed to turn over and tried to get to his feet, but it held him tightly from his backside and the ground under him started to sink. It pulled him down into the permafrost, attempting to bury him right where he lay!

Magnus thought about his rifle, but it would do no good if he couldn't fire the thing underneath himself. He produced the crystal instead and jabbed at the ground, guessing where creature's side might be. The wraith screamed and slipped out from under him. Magnus leapt to his feet like a cat and scampered behind rocks and ruined walls.

"Time and time." The wraith wailed in its song-like voice. "Time and time and time. And they all fall down."

"But I will take you with me." Magnus growled.

The wraith hissed and vomited unstable crystalline energies. Magnus dodged, the stream of power shot past him and obliterated a large hillside. Dirt and rocks showered in every direction, bouncing harmlessly off Magnus' hide. The entity screeched in a fit and it raced around the area, seeking a good attack angle. Magnus produced his weapon and fired two and three times, finding the creature less vulnerable in the air than on the ground. The Commander silently snarled and put his rifle away. There had to be another way.

Then came the rain.

No, liquid ice.

The stuff coated everything in a fine sheet of frost and the wraith plunged to the ground, unable to keep its floating form. It cursed and huddled close to a rock in vain. Magnus used extra energy to keep his body warm so that the ice melted on impact. But he knew he could not do that for long. "Come. It's time for you to go back." He stood tall and held the crystal out in front of him.

"Death! Nonexistence! They said it wasn't supposed to exist! I, here! No! N'gk for all this! You come, I will feast! I will feast!" And it lifted its head toward the pouring ice and laughed and the clouds circled high above it and the upper temperatures changed and the wraith sent power surges into the clouds and from there it looked directly at Magnus and Magnus took just one step, the ice crunched underfoot and a bolt of lightening struck.

His systems scrambled, his power reserves depleted and flashes of memories and thoughts came and fled his mind. He collapsed like an oversized tree, crumbling ice-covered stones with his huge form. The wraith laughed in his audios and Magnus heard it dance madly in the pouring ice storm. But it slipped once and fell and laughed and laughed. Then the wraith lifted its head again to the sky and a bolt of lightening jumped and shot it straight in the face. The thing wailed in the overdose of power and another bolt of lightening struck and another followed.

Magnus struggled to stay conscious. His systems slowly powered down. No! He had a job to do!

He thought hard. He needed to get that thing before it devoured more energy. Soon it would be too powerful to contain at all. Magnus thought of his surroundings. The ice, the lightening, the crystal, they all needed something else, something that could ensnare the monster . . .

A reverse explosion? An implosion? That would certainly entrap the wraith . . .

With a shout of determination, the wraith plunged its power-saturated form into a hill of rock and ice. Magnus waited with breathless fear, willing his systems to correct themselves in time. But they did not and there he lay, helpless as the wraith pushed itself out of the hillside as though the hill were giving birth. It squeezed and a face twisted through the ice as it emerged in pain and hardship. The Cyberwraith stood on two legs of stone, now blanketed in ice. It took three steps and Magnus realized that in spite of the creature's ability to create for itself a new form, it somehow remained stunted.

And there the City Commander knew he had an advantage. For the wraith knew of energy and metal. It knew of substances not found in the Terra system, It knew of things old and distant. But It did not know the unbending properties of rock. It did not know the limitations of ice. And it was surprised to find the rock cracked and crumbled when it opened eyes and a mouth. The wraith tried to draw energy from the rock, but found none. The rock had an aura of existence, as all things do, but it had no life force of its own. It was a substance that reflected energy, but it did not make it like the trees in Oregon. This the wraith discovered too late. For in order to become something, the wraith had to use the object's own life force to shape and mold it. Metal was different because metal used the properties of things that were already alive: those whose hands melted, shaped and formed it, pounding into its surface with sweat and blood, and so metal was in effect, a living thing that could be shaped and molded. But the rocks did not know. The rocks were not bending, they did not grow. They reflected only the wraith's surprise-and Magnus' growing fury.

The wraith moved its stubby little form and the stone body cracked. The wraith's features crumbled into surprise and Magnus had a moment's worth of chance before the wraith fled the rock body; before it realized it made a tactical error. Magnus quickly managed to reroute his systems, his back up supplies ran dangerously low. He whipped out his weapon and opened it. He reversed the polarities and wave shift then set the power crystal in backwards. Magnus cracked several large slices of ice sheets from nearby boulders about him and set them around the laser rifle like a house of playing cards. Then he produced the crystal and removing a small section of wiring from his injured left leg, Magnus ran raw truesilver wires from the ice to the rifle to the crystal.

Was it going to work? If it didn't he was as good as dead.

"Damron."

Magnus almost didn't see the thing waddle in front of him.

The Wraith moved so silently that he did not hear it. Magnus startled and managed to force himself to his knees. The ground ran slippery under him and he balanced himself carefully. The rain lessened and left the area blanketed in a beautiful sheet of ice.

"Damron." It repeated.

Magnus' insides ran as cold as the frost outside. "What-what did you say?"

"It was tasty, that one. He was tricky. Yes, very tricky. We watched him make things, like you. He was good to make things. We watched. He was good."

Magnus almost could not breathe. "What are you saying?"

"Damron. The Other. Dam-"

He could not believe what it was saying-he didn't want to believe- "SHUT UP YOU SONOFABITCH!"

The wraith's stone body cracked when it moved toward Magnus again. "Damron." It said again. "Good. Tasty."

"NO!" Magnus denied. "Not . . . not MY DAMRON . . ."

"Tasty."

With a cry, Magnus attacked the stumpy rock body. He pounded into it and pummeled it with his fists. "YOU SONOFABITCH!" He wailed. "IT'S NOT TRUE! YOU'RE LYING! YOU'RE LYING! YOU'RE LYING!"

It fell.

It fragmented.

Magnus fell back on his knees, the depletion of power finally took the best of him. But Ultra Magnus still did not relent. He weakly hit the thing until his metal hands scraped and dented with injuries, his voice wailed in grief. "You sonofabitch! You sonofabitch!" he kept crying over and over. "My SON! MY SON! YOU SONOFABITCH! YOU KILLED MY SON! MY SON! DAMRON!" His grief came in great gasps, his form weakening, falling over the rocky carcass.

Magnus did not see the wraith vacate the crumbled form. He did not see how it rose high above him, smiling. It lifted its face once again to the sky above and whispered, oh so softly, for the final blow. He commanded one bolt of lightening that would end Magnus' life.

The bolt struck, but not where the wraith anticipated. Instead, the lightening shot the negative energies leaking from the rewired rifle housed under the sheets of ice-negative energies that were naturally enhanced with the element of water. And from the trap, the bolt of lightening struck out, shooting from the barrel of the rifle straight to the wraith, but instead of a brilliant white color, the lightening appeared black and it struck the one positive life energy most powerful in the area: the Cyberwraith. The wraith's terrible wail came only in a little squeak before it was sucked backwards from the rifle, through the silver wiring leading straight to the crystal. The hematite glowed bright white and changed chemical properties and turned glowing translucent silver. The wraith wriggled harmlessly in it, trapped forever.

Magnus came to. He lay flat on his back on something warmer than the Tibetan permafrost. His optics flickered on.

"He's coming around." Optimus announced next to him.

"Ah, good. That's what he needed then."

Prime's optics met Magnus' and a warm sensation filled Magnus' heart when Optimus took his hand. "You did it, Old Friend." He said softly. "You beat that thing."

Magnus choked and feebly shook his head. "Damron." His voice came as nothing higher than a tiny squeak. "It . . . ate . . . oh Primus. Oh Primus."

Optimus bowed his head, silently sharing his friend's grief.

-------------------------------------

A bright morning sun blessed the cold land with gentle warmth. Three large well-crafted space ships set down on Fort Max's Upper Level. A long stretch of carpet colored the dark metal flooring in reds and whites, welcoming over two hundred and fifty alien ambassadors and representatives from the Intrasystemary Trading Alliance.

Rusti stood with her mouth hung open. Creatures resembling Earth insects, beings for which there was no description, and creatures that appeared almost Human came stalking, trotting, flopping and mincing down the carpet toward Optimus, Rodimus, Daniel Witwicky and Captain Marissa Fairborn.

Roddi smiled, amused that the little ten year-old child marveled at the array of alien delegates. "Not all life comes with two legs, two arms and speaking English, Kiddo."

Rusti batted her eyes, surprised to hear Roddi call her by that name. She closed her mouth and sent him a broad smile. _Is Ultra Magnus okay?_

_Dunno yet. We'll check on him this afternoon._

_He won't be too happy when he finds out who's been drilling 'his' troops. _

_Nonsense. It means he'll be more than happy to go back to work. _

Rusti grinned, now focusing her eyes on the first three ambassadors to arrive from Quethal and IB2. Roddi was being over optimistic about Magnus' soon-to-be reaction.

Afternoon Oregon sunlight filtered weakly down and touched the freshly-repaired surfaces of his horizontal form. Magnus' optics attained more information and found himself in a metal environment surrounded by walls, med tech equipment and two figures speaking in hushed tones at the other end of the room. Magnus stirred just slightly and Trinket was by his side the very next second. She smiled kindly and ran a scanner over his huge frame.

"Seems to be okay, Commander." She said, but not to the Major-General.

Rodimus hobbled over, assisted by, of all things, a cane. He threw Magnus a wry smile. "See? I told you he'd be fine. Hey, Mags. I guess you must've heard about the drills your troops are going through and have decided to come back and rescue them, huh?"

Magnus merely grunted and shut his optics off again. He thought of what the Cyberwraith said . . . Damron . . . the name of his son. Magnus did not know how to deal with that bit of private information. He did not-could not-believe it to be true. Perhaps, the City Commander, determined, it was best to wait for more information before deciding how to handle it. But the shock left the Major-General cold inside.

"You'd better tell him, Roddi." A 'littler' voice warned.

"Nah. The Big Guy's more interested in R 'nd R. He can wait." Rodimus grinned voraciously and Magnus heard the cane tap and one leg slightly drag, another leg took a step and the cane tapped again. There were five 'little' steps that followed and the cane tapped again before the Major-General moaned loudly.

"You had better tell me what's going on, Rodimus Prime." He growled dangerously. "Or I will take the cane and make it your noose."

"It's no big deal!" Rodimus cheerfully answered. "Really."

Magnus heard the girl sigh and he knew that sigh.

Trinket rushed to the bedside when the Major-General rolled himself over on his left arm and sat partially up. "You shouldn't get up, Commander-" she objected. But she said nothing else when Magnus' optics shot at Rodimus. Rusti flinched and he bit back a smile.

"Exactly what HAD you better tell me?" He growled a little more loudly.

Rodimus cast his optics on Rusti, but the child did not return his gaze-she cringed and looked elsewhere. Prime stood straight and fearless. "Oh nothing, Mags. Just that your troops have been in the most capable of hands in the last three weeks while you've been hunting and recouping. That's all."

Magnus studied Roddi then glanced at the girl, then trained his optics on Prime again. "Who?" He asked quietly but sternly.

"Who?" Roddi innocently echoed.

"Who." Magnus dragged it out like a death knell.

Silence.

Magnus shook his head. "No. Don't tell me. Sky Lynx." He read the girl's expression. No. It wasn't the right answer. "Rodimus?"

Rusti finally rolled her eyes. _Coward._ she spat. "It was Optimus." She answered Magnus.

Roddi smiled nervously. "Kids these days. They say the darnedest things."

Magnus sat up from the flat, hands crossing (painfully) over one another. "Prime? I have worked hard for the last several years to drill those Autobots in precise well-coordinated movements and . . . Optimus-"

"Guerilla warfare is every bit as useful in battle as conventional tactics." Rodimus defended.

Magnus wanted to kill someone. But his body wouldn't let him even look half as mean as he knew he should. He whimpered like a wounded child and lay back on the flatbed.

Roddi grinned down at his Lady Friend. "See, Rusti? I told you he'd take it well!" He tapped and stepped out of the room, humming his way down the hall.

Rusti lingered a moment longer, stepping toward the door, glancing back over her shoulder in a pause of sympathy. "Well, at least . . . at least you're back to retrain them, Ultra Magnus." She said gently.

"Guerilla warfare." Magnus moaned pitifully. "Amateurs. I should have retired."

End.

T.L. Arens


End file.
